Teacher training must promote communication skills

Teacher training must promote communication skills

Simon Marcus Gower, Executive Principal, High/Scope Indonesia, Jakarta

"I don't like my math teacher."

"Why not?"

"He's always angry with us. If we ask him a question he gets
angry."

"Why does he get angry?"

"He says we should be able to understand when he explains but
we don't. He says we are stupid if we always have to ask
questions."

The above brief interview represents a very sad predicament.
The young girl attending a Jakarta primary school was reflecting
on her problems with learning mathematics. It is probably fair to
say that a majority of primary school kids do not really enjoy
their math lessons and even experience problems with them. But it
seems this child's problems are being compounded by a rather
dismissive and uncommunicative teacher.

These kinds of problems are recurring in many Indonesian
schools. The parents of one primary school girl reported that her
math teacher would simply explain a problem once, then explain a
second time and expect the children to understand. Their
daughter, who had not understood these two identical
explanations, was then promptly and rather painfully told that
she would have to repeat the work as homework or face the
prospect of having to attend remedial classes.

In short the teacher was not really teaching. Instead there
was presentation but there was no follow-up communication and
attention to help the students learn and understand. There was
the blind assumption, if not demand, that the school pupils
follow and comprehend. Any failure to comprehend was put down as
the students' fault rather than the teacher's.

Teachers, though, may often be at fault and they need to be
flexible and honest enough to be aware of this. Their own
communications with students, rather than clarifying, can have
the affect of compounding the problem.

To achieve some potential for success as a teacher, there are
certain fundamental requirements for educators. Key among these
are a sound knowledge-base, that is knowing the subject; a
repertoire of teaching methods that help the learners learn;
personal qualities that allow the learners to have faith and
confidence in their teacher; a sense of fairness and democracy to
communicate with all students; and a love of learning that the
learners may see as an example to them.

Each one of the above list is very important and, no doubt,
other items could be added to the list, but underlying and
supporting each and every fundamental of teaching is the core
need for communication skills. Regrettably, however, it is easy
to observe teachers in classrooms failing to communicate well.

Take, for example, the notion of teachers being fair and
democratic. In one school students complained that their physics
teacher was often uncommunicative. As it turned out, the students
with whom he would communicate were those students that were
achieving the best grades for physics. Those students that were
showing less ability in his subject were effectively being pushed
aside.

It is, of course, an easy trap to fall into. Communicating
with those that are more able and skilled is an easier option
than struggling with the less able and less conversant.
Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon a good and effective teacher
to reach out to as many, if not all, of the students as possible.

Communication is at the center of all our learning activities.
The little child first entering school is likely to be filled
with questions and the good teacher encourages and responds to
these questions. It is perhaps one of the saddest things about
educational experiences that questioning and participation
becomes less and less enthusiastic as children progress through
their school years.

For example -- a teacher of a kindergarten class that asks for
a volunteer or a question is likely to be overwhelmed with hands
shooting up from eager, willing class members. Meantime, a high
school teacher asking a question or looking for a volunteer is
much more likely to have to elicit answers and pick out
volunteers.

Life in school may, then, be seen as reducing participation
willingness and slowly reducing communicative involvement. Some
teachers in high schools even seem to want to nullify or stifle
students' desire to communicate. Highly motivated and inquisitive
students have fallen victim to reprimands and complaints from
teachers that they are disruptive.

But teachers, to be truly effective, have to enjoy
communication. They have to love involvement with people. In
essence they have to be able to recognize that knowledge and
communication have a hugely beneficial emancipating effect.
Teachers have to love the opportunity that teaching gives them to
communicate with people and, equally, the opportunity that they
get to be communicated to.

They should, then, learn and be trained in communication in
all its forms -- for example -- being skilled communicators both
orally and in writing. This means that they should develop skills
to be able to talk and write to an audience, but also to listen
and read. Potentially then they may become successful
communicators.

This further sets up a requirement that teachers are able to
use their language well and fully. Competence in manipulating the
language is vital because language essentially equals
communication and communication equals knowledge and the
potential to spread understanding.

Under these circumstances it seems odd that poor communicators
go on to become teachers but, of course, their success as
teachers may remain in doubt. In various Indonesian schools
teachers have been encountered that admit that they "don't really
like talking in front of a class" or "don't really know how to
write".

These are sad admissions because they suggest shortfalls in
essential communicative skills for teachers. Where there is a
lack of communication ability, there is the danger of inability
to share learning and understanding. Critically, teachers need to
be facilitators of the abilities to learn and grow. Some have
suggested that education's purpose is to "replace empty
mindedness with open-mindedness". If this high ideal is to be
achieved, then it is vital that teachers possess distinct powers
of communication; to speak to those minds and encourage them
toward openness.

In practically every field of human endeavor and employment it
has been recognized that any degree of advancement cannot really
be achieved if a person does not have a love for the work. This
is probably even more true for education than any other field of
employment.

As people are being prepared for the great challenges and
responsibilities of being a teacher it is very important that
they be trained and monitored for their abilities to communicate.
Without skills in communication, teachers will only be mediocre
at best. With communicative competence teachers can open the
minds of their students and continue to grow themselves as life-
long lovers of learning.